Sacramento, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) - California Governor Jerry Brown has signed Senate Bill (SB) 146, which removes the requirement imposed on pharmacies and payors to submit a copy of the prescription with every workers’ compensation claim. The bill will take effect immediately.

SB 146 was proposed to address a provision in SB 863, which was passed in the final days of the 2012 legislative session and implemented sweeping reforms in the California workers’ compensation system. A provision in that bill required payors to collect a copy of the actual prescription with each claim submitted. As soon as that provision was discovered, our Government Affairs team went to work. We approached Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Long Beach), who recognized the difficulty pharmacies would have in complying and the costs to payors in having to collect the information. He agreed to sponsorSB 146, which passed both the Senate and Assembly with no opposing votes.

We applaud Senator Lara’s efforts in moving this legislation forward to save both pharmacies and payors in the state from a very expensive and logistically challenging process.